Worth
by plusTHREE
Summary: Sora's heartbreak over a cheating beau causes her to re-evaluate herself. She also gets a little help along the way. Set in college. AU. SOKERU Sora/T.K with other couples thrown in.


A/N: Hey y'all, I've come back from an UBER LONG hiatus. I've been super suuuper busy these past…well, years, but I just love writing way too much to let it go just yet. XD This is a Digimon fic with the cast of season 2. The older cast (Sora, Tai etc) will be 21 and the younger gen (Davis, T.K. etc) will be 18. I write with the flow and I have a couple of ideas for the future, but we'll see where the wind takes me. (:

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Nakahara University was like any normal college out there. With a student populous of 30,000 admittance was fairly easy, although there were a good number of achievers that competed amongst the best of Japan. The personalities of the student body were as colorful as a rainbow, ranging from the hermits who never left their rooms and the others who were partying their parents' tuition money away. Living arrangements were picked by the students; many chose to stay off-campus, while many chose to stay in the dormitories for the sake of convenience. There were separate dorms for the women and the men… the latter is where our story begins.

_Let me break the ice,_

_Allow me to get you right_

_Won't you warm up to me?_

_Baby I can make you feel..._

'Is he really listening to Britney Spears?' thought a haggard looking girl as she arrived to the door of her boyfriend's dorm room, wondering when Ishikawa Brian had decided that he favored the musical stylings of America's former pop princess. It had been two weeks, three days, twenty-something hours since she had seen her other half, not that she was counting. Finals had been killing the college sophomore, and it was apparent on her face. Normally having a natural radiance about her, her skin had lost its glow and even a patch of acne could be seen on her left cheek. Her breakouts were stress-related, so she was glad that finals were finally over so her skin could go back to normal.

In fact, she was glad that she finally could have some time to herself, with it now being summer. She hadn't put on make-up or worn her hair down in a while; honestly it was a bother to even have it this long. The only reason why she kept it at this length was because Brian liked it that way. Pushing up the glasses further up on the bridge of her nose, the woman sighed and started digging through her bag for his spare key. She paused for a moment, pondering if she should go back to her dorm room and make herself look presentable before seeing him. At least put on her contact lenses, or put on a pair of jeans, rather than the sweatpants and tank top she had on now.

A smile tugged on her lips. No, that could wait for later. Right now, she just wanted to see him. Besides, he always said he loved her even at her worst…

"Brian?"

Sora called out, pushing open the door and sticking her head inside to peer in. The music was blaring and the room was dark, although there was a light emitting from his bathroom. The shower was running. She stepped inside, wrinkling her nose in disgust at how messy his room was. Piles of clothes littered the floor and there were take-out boxes on his bed even though the trash can was two feet away. Though, she couldn't fully blame him, considering how busy he also was from finals.

No doubt he had been studying all day. That's what his text said, after all.

"Brian?" she called out once more, heading towards the bathroom door.

Hearing the water running, Takenouchi stopped and smiled to herself. Maybe she should surprise him? It's not like they haven't seen each other exposed before. But then again, it could be his suite-mate. Though he didn't have a roommate, all dormitory residents had to share a connected bathroom. She thought about it, then shook her head, remembering that Brian's suite-mate had just moved out. He was supposed to be getting a new one sometime soon, though.

It was decided, she would surprise him in the shower. She was sure that it was him in there.

She tip-toed up to the bathroom door, making sure to keep quiet so he wouldn't hear her. Britney was still singing about breaking the ice and making you feel 'ah, ah, ah, ah'. With a devilish gleam in her eyes, the girl pushed the door ever so slightly with her finger and looked inside.

"Yeah, you like it like that, don't you?"

What she saw paralyzed her from the head down.

There he was, her boyfriend of two years, and a girl she knew as his lab partner, on top of the bathroom counter doing all sorts of things you shouldn't be doing when you're in a relationship with someone else.

Sora's eyes widened and her fists clenched, a mix of emotions surging through her body. Shock was the initial feeling. Anger was there, somewhere. So was sadness…but she couldn't think about it right now. Right now, all she was trying to comprehend was 'why'? She didn't think that he was even capable of doing something like that…he wasn't even that cute!

Yet, here he was, violating the sanctity of a shared bathroom and their relationship with a girl he always described as 'pretty plain and boring'.

Takenouchi looked the girl over, realizing that people radiant a different aura when they are nude. Her presence never made much of an impact now, but with how sensual she looked, it exacerbated femininity and she couldn't help but notice it. She was in no way 'plain and boring' as he told her before; she had blonde hair in ringlets that bobbed up and down with every…thrust that Brian made. Her eyes were green and her chest was rather large, yet her body was slender. Sora never even scrutinized the way the girl looked before, because she had trusted Brian, but now that she had a better look, she came to a conclusion that the girl was rather gorgeous. A bombshell, actually.

'He lied…' the thought sank into her head. He lied about that girl. He lied about studying. He probably lied to her about more things that she knew about.

And before she knew it, Sora Takenouchi was running. She ran and ran and ran, not knowing where she was going or what she wanted to do. The shock had been replaced by sadness, a pained expression evident on her face as she darted through the hallways of the large dormitory. Several students watched as she took off, curiosity piqued but not enough to chase her and figure out why.

'That…pig! That dirty pig! That filthy, disgusting, can't-keep-it-in-his-pants PIG!' She thought angrily, tears now starting to well in her eyes. Her body had finally caught up to the emotions of her heart as she stopped running suddenly and fell to her knees. No, she couldn't cry. She wouldn't cry. There were many things in the world to cry over; and a worthless man wasn't one of them. A sob hitched in her throat as she fought to keep from screaming in frustration. Her head was bowed as she unsuccessfully fought back tears, the salty liquid soaking her eyes and dripping onto the lens of her glasses.

'I can't believe I'm crying over that dirt bag…' Sora thought, half in disbelief and half in resentment. Her book bag slipped from her shoulder and fell over with a slight thud.

"Hey…um…I know it's a stupid question to ask if you're alright, but um… are you alright?"

A soft, male voice caught her attention.

Sora looked up slowly, numb to the world around her. She realized she probably looked in even worse shape than before; her glasses fogged and dripping with tears, her ponytail loosely hanging to the side, eyes puffy and snot probably running down her face. But she didn't care. All she could manage in response was to shake her head up and down as an affirmative, although it was obvious that that was the furthest thing from the truth.

The stranger helped her up to her feet. The girl kept her head down, eyes averting from the stranger, as if she didn't want to see him. The last thing she needed right now was sympathy from someone who didn't even have a clue what was going on. However, her body didn't agree with what her mind was saying and she couldn't help but bury her face into the guy's chest. There was something about him that was familiar, but she couldn't place her finger on it. All she wanted to do was get away from Brian and away from these feelings. She felt so overwhelmed. It was then, for the first time in years, that Sora started to cry.

Surprisingly enough, he didn't pull away. In fact he had held her closer to him, pressing a hand against her back and rubbing it gently. "It's okay…whatever happened to you…I'm sorry…"

She couldn't remember the last time she felt so warm.

* * *

"So-RA Tak-e-NOOOUUU-CHI!"

Her dorm room forcefully swung open and the red-headed girl turned to see her suite-mate making more of a fuss than usual. She turned her head to look at the girl and raised an eyebrow at the entrance, dropping another picture of her and her pig-soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend into the smoldering flame below. It was eight o'clock in the evening now, three hours after she witnessed her relationship crumble in a span of two seconds. By then the predominant emotion was anger.

Brian Ishikawa was still blissfully unaware of her knowledge. He even texted her a while after she left, saying that his studying was taking longer than he thought, that he hoped her finals were going well, and to let him know when she had time to see him.

"Girl you best not be smoking in here, you know that isn't allo…wed. What are you doing?"

A dark haired girl with bright gray eyes stood there, gaping at the scene in front of her. Sora's dorm room was plain, but not boring. She had a bed, a television, a MacBook, iPod, all the necessities of any normal college student. But what caught her eye was the position Sora was in. Was her suite mate was committing some kind of witchcraft? Takenouchi stood by her bed with a huge black cauldron in front of her and a fire burning inside of it. Quickly reacting, she shut the door to make sure no one would walk by and witness this spectacle. "Are you casting a spell on someone, Ms. Takenouchi?"

"Actually no, Ms. Cagayan, I'm not. Just ridding myself of useless things." Sora replied casually, getting ready to throw one of his shirts into the mix.

"Hey!" Marie cried, darting to her friend and snatching the shirt from her grip. "Really? This is Brian's. What are you doing burning this…" she trailed off, looking into the black bowl and noticing that they were all pictures of Sora and Brian together, trinkets that he gave her, and all other memorabilia. "Oh. He cheated on you, didn't he."

"Yup." Was the simple response. The bluntness didn't phase either of them.

Marie sighed and she handed the shirt back to Sora. Men were such dirty creatures. "You're going to set off the fire alarm."

"The window's open and I took the batteries out of my smoke detector. It'll be fine," Sora said quietly in response, taking the shirt and tossing it into the bowl. Instead of catching on fire, it put out the small flame. She furrowed her eyebrows when she realized what she did.

"Ugh… I can't do anything right!" she shouted in irritation, walking over to her bed and falling into it face first.

Her suite mate giggled and she plopped down next to her, patting her on the back in condolence. "Giiiirl…I'm sorry, but Brian's a dumbass, plain and simple. You are one of the smartest girls here, and one of the prettiest!"

At the word 'prettiest', Sora snorted and lifted up her head to give her a look of disbelief. She hadn't changed or even fixed herself since the incident, glasses crooked and hair still a mess.

Marie coughed. "Okay, when you aren't purposely trying to make yourself look like a crazy cat woman, you're actually really hot."

Silence prevailed for a couple of moments.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm PISSED," Sora responded with fervor, "that little punk thinks he can pull a fast one on me! You wanna know what he texted me, he said, 'I can't wait to see you babe! It's on like Donkey Kong!' and then ends it with a smiley face like everything is peachy! Who does that? And who says 'It's on like Donkey Kong' nowadays?"

"Wait, does he know that you know?"

"No, he doesn't know that I know, but I prefer to keep it that way."

Marie took in her words and her eyebrows shot up in curiosity, as if she just remembered something. "Didn't you just buy Guam tickets for you two?" That was supposed to be their vacation at the end of summer break, right before they would star their junior year.

A growl was the response. "Yes. He says that he was going to pay me back since he didn't have the money at the time…"

Marie flinched. "Sora, you paid for both of the tickets?"

"Yer."

"Yer?"

"Yer."

"You realize he's probably not going to pay you back, right?"

"Probably not." Now that she thought about it, there were a lot of things that Brian hadn't paid for. The 50 in TV that was in his room, Sora had helped pay for half, even if she never got to use it as she had her own. The subwoofer that he HAD to have in his car was paid for, again by Sora. The speakers were also paid for by her. His iPod even!—well, to be fair, that was a gift. But still. She racked her mind as she thought about all the countless times she had covered the check when they ate out, all the times he said 'baby, I don't have the money for this but I really want it'…

Marie noticed Sora's expression slowly turning sour and she placed her hands in her nap nervously, as if anticipating what she was going to say. She could infer what was running through her friend's mind at the moment, and she couldn't blame her for feeling the way she did. Although Brian had a job, he preferred getting that little extra help from his girlfriend, even though they made pretty much the same amount of money. He worked at a Hollister and she worked at a small café right outside of campus.

"I'm getting a refund on the tickets tomorrow," Sora finally spoke up, her facial features twisted into a sort of apathetic, yet still quite scary expression.

Marie couldn't help but be a little afraid. "Yeah, that's a good idea."

Takenouchi's glaring face suddenly turned soft and she buried her head into her sheets. "I can't believe he would cheat on me. I did everything I could for that man…but even so…EVEN SO!" she roared, pushing herself off of the bed quickly. The girl started to pace around the room, as if pondering her next move. A couple moments later and, her hardened face grew into a sad one and she stopped walking. "Did I do something to deserve this?"

Almost immediately, Marie had gotten off of the bed and situated herself by Sora's side, placing n arm around her shoulders. Her angry-sad mood swings were definitely strange, but what can you expect from a girl so heartbroken?

"Don't say you deserve it. You deserve the best," she reassured, then paused, as if she had an idea. "Oh Sora, let's go out to Tama later! It's ladies night so we'll get in for freeee."

"I don't feel like going to the club," Sora replied rather abruptly, shaking her friend's arm off and making her way back to the bed to sit down.

"Psh posh, you deserve a bit of de-stressage right now, look at you, your skin's screaming 'help me, help me!'" Marie said, putting the back of her hand to her forehead dramatically.

Takenouchi cast her eyes down to her feet, hand coming up to rub at her cheek. Oops, her self-conscience was peeking through.

Marie giggled. "I have some stuff that'll make that go down within a couple of hours, and concealer does work magic you know. C'mon Sora, it'll be good for you. There'll be drinks and hot boys to look at, most importantly, distractions. You gotta keep your head up girl. We'll figure out how to take care of that jerk later. You just need to be free of him and all thoughts of him, even if it's just for tonight."

Slowly but surely, Sora found herself agreeing. There was nothing she could do about Brian now. She still loved the asshole, but there was no point in stressing over him anymore. Yet she knew. She knew it would take a while for her to get over him, so if a stupid club and some stupid drinks could help her start the healing process, why not? Besides…he had no idea what was coming and hell hath no fury like a woman scorned; especially a woman so angry SHE didn't even know what she was going to do.

"Marie, can I borrow one of your skirts?"

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`*- end chapt 1

A/N: yesh I know it's a weak introductory chapter T_T I'm so rusty, so please bear with me. The mysterious comforting stranger is someone she knows, but that will be covered soon enough. You can all probably guess who :P

Please submit a review! It takes a couple of clicks and a couple of sentences; it gives me incentive to write more chapters, hopefully better ones haha!

I own nothing except for the OC's Brian and Marie. Other digidestined will appear; although this story will focus on Sora heavily.

Thanks for reading, over and OOOUUUTTT ;D


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